Heads of Deparment
by Cap10
Summary: The science deparments are not getting along. Dr. Weir puts them in a room to talk out their differences. Wrong choice. Mckay cracks ribs, Beckett's in the ducts, and Kavanagh gets nailed in the face.
1. Chapter 1

Heads of Department

Disclaimer-As much as I would like to, I don't own Stargate Atlantis or its characters.

_Since the beginning of recorded history there have been scientists. And as long as there has been scientist there has been scientific argument. This need for controlled yelling at one's colleges is the reason I am awake this fine morning. For Pete's sake you think that someone would respect the fact that some of us work the nightshift…"_

"Dr. Bec."

"Yes, Dr. Weir." Dr. Rebecca Thomason noticed that Mckay was hurrying into the lab and clicked her laptop shut.

"Now that everyone is here," Dr. Weir shot Mckay a withering glance for being late. "I would like to get started with the meeting. You have all met each other at Antarctica, and back on earth you could avoid the people that you clashed with. We no longer have that option. Since we have gotten here there has been a greater frequency of conflicts between science departments. These conflicts are going to end now. I am going to walk out that door, post marines on the outside, and come back," she glanced at her watch, "two hours. By the time I come back you will have come up with a plan to get along."

Then Dr. Weir left. She just walked out the door leaving a whole bunch of very confused scientist staring at one another. Zelenka was the first to speak up and expressed what they all were feeling.

"So, what do we do now?"

Dr. Mckay was the first person to get up from the table, he opened the door and sure enough there were two marines, in full gear, guarding the door. He closed the door and slumped down into his seat wishing that he brought his laptop to this meeting.

The other scientists were starting to zone out on their various tasks. In one corner Dr. Avril Blancheflour (Botany), Dr. Julio Perez (Anthropology), and Dr. Carl Raginmar (Biology) started competing for the best score on Minesweeper. On one side of the table Dr. Radek Zelanka (Engineering) and Dr. Peter Grodin (Computer) were quietly arguing about the new interface program. Dr. Bec Thomason (HOG team) and Dr. Ryan Eaton (Astronomy), the two assigned to the nightshift, decided it was a really good time to take a nap, while Dr. Kavanagh (Chemistry) was wandering around the room trying to beat Mckay at the complaining game.

It seemed like everyone was completely content to waste these two hours, tolerating each other's company. It wasn't like they had a choice. They were jolted from the boredom when Kavanagh cursed. They could hear a faint ticking that was starting to speed up.

"What did you do!" Mckay stormed over to Kavanagh.

"Nothing," Kavanagh retorted. "I just kick it." He motioned to a small round object that looked like a ball. The peeping continued to speed up.

"What do you mean you just kicked it?"

"I just did!"

As the two argued they didn't notice that the ball had stopped peeping. Someone said 'crap' and everything faded white.


	2. Chapter 2

The lights began to flicker and died as Dr. Weir made it to the control room. All of the ancient equipment shut down as the earth computers switched to batteries. It would have been dark but the morning sunlight streamed through the stain glass windows.

"What is going on?"

"I don't know." The young Canadian technician was typing frantically on a pair of laptops. "I starting to run a diagnostic but I really think I we need Drs. Grodin and Mckay. As far has I can tell," the technician looked up confused at Dr. Weir, "the whole system seems to have shorted out."

Dr. Weir activated her radio, "Dr. Mckay, Grodin please report to the Gateroom." No one replied. "Dr. Mckay please, respond." Again nothing, Dr. Weir was being to get a little worried. "Lt. Sheppard, please have marines check out science conference room two. We have lost contact with Drs. Mckay and Grodin, the technicians believe that there has been a short in the system and they need to help repair it."

"_I am right on it. We lost contact with the two marines stationed at the door of the conference about the same time as the power when out. I have a feeling the two incidents are related to the fact we can't get a hold of Mckay._" Sheppard reported to through the radio after ordering a team of marines to the conference room before heading there himself.

"The first results of the diagnostic are coming up." A blond female woman commented, but gasped after looking at the data streaming across the screen. "Dr. Weir you might want to look at this." Her voice choked. "It looks like there was an explosion in the conference room a few seconds before the black out. I can't tell how much damage was done until we get the sensors up. I am going to have to call some more of the computer science department to help with this." The technician looked to her leader.

"Get anyone you need up here. We need to identify this problem and fix it, fast." Dr. Weir was going to take one more step to ensure the safety of her scientist. "Dr. Beckett."

"_Yes luv, what has happened to the power?_"

"We believe there was an accident of some sort. The last readings indicated an explosion in the science conference room. All of the science department heads were in that room and we have not been able to reach them. We don't know what the damage situation is, but I want you to send a medical team just in case. We don't know what we will find."

"_Aye, lass. I will get right on it._"

Sheppard cam on the radio next "_Elizabeth we have got a problem."_

"I assume you have made it to conference room."

"_Um, not exactly. We are at the entrance to the hallway that leads to the conference room. That's as far as we can go, the hallway is choked with debris." _He sounds worried, Weir thought. They were all worried but if anyone could get out of a scrape like this it was Dr. Mckay.

_Note to self, never put a bunch of board scientists alone in a room. Give them enough time and something will blow up. For example I was once at a science competition. The judging was over so the adults brought us to a fancy fondue restaurant. Big mistake, a bunch of very board teen scientist, boiling hot oil and ice water in our cups. A chemist tossed a sliver of ice into their pot and watched it sizzle, we all found it entertaining. It was only a matter of time until a physicist dumped half a cup of ice water. There was a minor explosion as the water flashed to steam. _

"Dr. Bec, you still awake." A hand touched her cheek.

"Yes, I am still here Grodin." Flicking her eyes open, she honestly wishing she could go back to napping, but the fact Dr. Zelenka was laying unconscious across her back and in turn the table pinned him was making that a bit hard. "Any luck with the table?"

"No really. We are still figuring out what injuries everyone has." In the dim reddish light she could see Grodin crouching in above her. "As far as I can tell Mckay and Kavanagh took the brought of the force, but they don't appear to have any shrapnel injuries. I think we sustained a concussion blast."

"But that not the thing we are currently worried about." Mckay spat from his sit in the corner.

"Good to hear your up, Mckay." Bec commented. At least he was awake, maybe she could witness his skill to 'fix anything,' that he was so found of bragging about.

Mckay grumbled back. "I have been up for a while. Anyway our real problem is just beginning. The concussion blast punched a hole into the wall and now one of the under layers of the wall is on fire." To come to think of it Bec realized it was starting to get rather warm and the smell of acrid smoke was filling the room.

_**Authors note:** Thank you so much for the people who reviewed the previous chapter. I hope you enjoy this section as well. _


	3. Chapter 3

The Gateroom was chaotic; with the top rung of the scientific community gone the technicians are lost about what they should do. Luckily the young Canadian, Chuck, was busy organizing the people working on the censors. It was almost odd watching that many computer scientists and physicists smashed in the control rooms arguing animatedly and yet actually making progress.

Meanwhile the Sheppard was working with a crew of engineers and HOG team members to try to clean the hallway. Dr. Weir chuckled remembering how Sheppard had questioned putting a group of divers and geologists on the crew removing debris from the hallway. The fact was they worked well with the engineers. The geologists and divers were completely fearless slipping into tight cracks to attach cables to debris, mean while the engineers where cold and calculated. They worked the equipment, planed which pieces needed to be removed next and what areas are unstable. Everyone was hoping that they were not going to be too late.

"Dr. Weir! Dr. Weir! We have gotten the first censor up." The scientists split apart allowing Dr. Weir to access the computer. "It seems like the temperature is rising inside the room."

"Can you find any reason for this raise in temperature?"

"Not so far, at first I thought it was a glitch but the neighboring rooms are also starting to heat up." Another scientist looked over their shoulder.

"Fire," the scientist said bluntly. "There is a fire along the walls. Before I was stationed here I worked on some models looking at the spread of fire in different materials. This matches what happen in some boats where the wiring inside the walls catches on fire while the walls stay relatively stable for a while they do heat up. They also fill the rooms full of toxic smoke."

"What would be the survival levels of the people in that room with the damage in the hallway?"

"There shouldn't be any damage to the hallway. If we look at the scans the room is structurally sound. It is almost like there were two explosions. One was a relatively small one in the room which caused the fire and the second much larger one which caused the damage in the hall. If that is the cause then our people should still be alive, but I don't know how long they can stay that way."

"Find what is going on. If we are dealing with two explosions then they are probably not an accidental. We need to know if the rescuers are in danger. We can't afford to anyone else in danger." Inwardly Dr. Weir sighed. At least they now had some clue about what is going on, but that was small comfort.

_If you have never worked with scientist you probably don't realize that most of us have something fundamentally wrong with us. For example it could be medical, such as the fact I get migraines and have a bad knee, or it could be mental such as the fact Zelenka has a phobia of swimming, or social such as the fact no one trusts Kavanagh to fix anything. Last but not least they can have all of these problems, such as Dr. Mckay._

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"

"What is wrong, Rodney?" Grodin sat up straight in the corner, sweat slowly rolling down his face.

"I hurt my hand." Mckay wined.

Grodin made his way over to Mckay and looked at is scraped palm. "Any luck getting a radio working?"

"Not yet. I just don't have any tools, no light, and I am starting to have a hyperglycemic reaction."

"What's wrong? You admitting that you can't really fix everything, that you really are the smartest man in the galaxy?" As usual Kavanagh said the worst possible thing he could have at the worst possible timing.

"What do you expect me to do?" Mckay countered. "I hate to break it to you but MacGyver isn't real. There are some that require some amount of equipment to fix things." Things probably would have gotten bad, if Grodin hadn't gotten between the two scientists and Bec spoke up from under the still unconscious Zelanka and the up turned table.

"I might be able to help you with the hyperglycemia. I have a power bar in my pocket. It probably mashed but you can have it you can get it out." After several minuets of Grodin and Eaton feeling for Bec's pockets, they finally got the power bar out as well as a bunch of other stuff.

"Okay everyone else empty your pockets. Let's see what other stuff we have that could help us." Grodin wondered why they hadn't thought of that earlier maybe it was the fact the heat and smoke was starting to get to them.

"Bec? How come you keep all this stuff in your pockets?" Perez looked at the pile that included with a pocket knife, penlight, jump drive, and band aids, as he emptied his own pockets.

"EMT training dies hard." Boy it was really getting hard to breathe in here she thought. "Anyway I have a have a vulcanologist on my team. They are the scientists that are most likely to die or be critically injured. Most people argue that it is because work with volcanoes but I think it is a personality thing. They just like to be in danger."

"So we have a whole bunch of wrappers, some thumb drives, seven band aids, a penlight and a pocket knife. We have been sitting here for nearly two hours and I have heard no tapping at the doors. What should we do?" Through in he two cents, Carl Raginmar commented.

"Vent." It was the first thing that Avril Blacheflour had really said. Everyone looked at her then at the ceiling.

"That just might work."


	4. Chapter 4

Four hours after the accident and the technicians were beginning to rotate breaks so they could grab a cup of coffee or a bit to eat. Sheppard's rescue team was working hard, but people were starting to make mistakes. An engineer had already been sent to the infirmary from dropping a beam on his foot. It looked like everything was coming to a stand still when Weir was called from her office.

"We have gotten the biosensors up in the room." The technician from the Ukraine beckoned Dr. Weir over to the computer. "I think we have a problem. How many people were in that room?"

"Eight, seven department heads and a chief scientist. Why?" But when Weir saw the screen she understood. Her heart sank; there were only seven glowing dots. "We lost one."

_It my just be my opinion but I really think there should be more girls in science. We can be just as effective as any of the guys and some times we can do things better. I have been very useful on a Speleology mission because I am smaller and thinner built then the guys. Does that change things in the outside world? No. Out of the eight science department heads only two of us are female._

Bec woke up feeling moment above her. She bumped her elbow into the body above her and heard a groan. "Everyone, I think Zelenka's coming to." Most of the scientists immediately dropped the jury rigged tools they were working on and rushed over.

"How are you feeling Radek?" Grodin bent over the Czech as opened his eyes and was surprised to see panic.

"Can't breathe…Can't breathe." Zelenka pushed feebly at the table that pinned him.

"Whoa, hold still Radek. Calm down, we got you. Just don't…" Zelenka flailed his one free arm, hitting Bec in the head, hard.

"Nytah! That really hurt." Bec covered her head with her hands and squeezed her eyes shut to keep them from tearing. "Please don't do that again."

"Where is Dr. Thomason?" Dr. Zelenka asked clearly still out of it. He strained his neck to try to see her.

"Well, Bec's underneath you, Dr. Z." Eaton popped his head into Zelenka's line of sight. As his world started to turn gray he realized that he was partially laying on something warm and lumpy.

"I really think you better get us out from under this table." Bec whimpered and everyone finally listened.

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"One, two, three, PUSH." Eaton, Kavanagh, Grodin, Perez and Raginmar bench pressed the table while Mckay and Avril quickly pulled Zelenka and Bec from under the table before it slammed back down on the floor. By the end of the extraction everyone was exhausted, but the air in the room was continuing to fill with smoke. If they were going to try to make an escape, they would have to work fast.

"Okay, people we need to some how get the cover off the vent. Have not been able to right the table, what other options do we have?" Grodin tried to bring everyone's groggy minds back to business.

"We have some chairs, and we have some people. What if we stacked them?" Avirl suggested. "With the resources we have, I think that that might be our only option."

"I say we try it." Eaton piped in.

Within fifteen minutes they had organized a system to remove the vent cover. Every ten minutes they Eaton, Kavanagh, Grodin, Mckay, Perez, and Raginmar rotate standing on the chair with either Avril or Bec on their shoulders. The women would then use the pocket knife to unscrew the cover. The hunk of metal finally started to come loose on when Mckay had the privilege of being the bottom of the latter.

"Can't you hurry up any faster? My back is really hurting again, I think I must have pulled a muscle or something during the explosion. I should probably lay down until Dr. Beckett has a chance to look at it."

"I am sorry, Mckay. I am working as fast as I can. And would you stop complaining you didn't spend over two hours trapped under a table."

"But…"

"Would you please stopping it, Rodney?" Zelenka asked from the corner, where he was propped up.

"Easy for you to say, you aren't on the bottom of a human ladder."

"Hey I don't weigh that much. I am only a hundred and thirty pounds, and once again you weren't stuck underneath a table for two hours. And will you STOP MOVING!" Bec finished with the last screw, and passed down another cover to Grodin. Peeking over the lip of the vent Bec announced. "The vent looks clean. No debris. I think we have a mode of escape."

Bec didn't know that a moment later Kavanagh 'accidentally' bumped Mckay, but she did noticed when he suddenly disappeared from beneath her. At the last second she thrust her right arm onto the vent's ledge. As she slipped of the ledge she felt a sharp shard of metal slicing down the length of her forearm and across her palm, then she landed on top of Mckay with a sickening thud, leaving Bec a limp lump of flesh a growing puddle of blood spreading across the floor.


	5. Chapter 5

Everyone stopped in shock and stared at Bec in her puddle of blood. Grodin was the first to move. He quickly felt Bec's neck and rocked back when he felt a quick thready pulse.

"She is still alive," Grodin examined her arm, "but it looks like she has an arterial bleed. We need to get some pressure bandages on this now." Eaton stripped off his t-shirt and handed it to Grodin who pressed it hard on the arm.

Avril was the next to move, and she was on the war path.

"Kavanagh! Are you and idiot!?!" She stormed over to Kavanagh and punched him in the face, feeling cool satisfaction with his nose snapped under her fingers. She then started yelling at him at the top of her lungs in French.

"Is she swearing?" Eaton stared at usually reserved French scientist, who was now the scariest woman that he had ever seen. Perez skin paled a few shades, and Grodin was staring at the ground as he pressed his lips together trying not to laugh.

"Swearing would be putting it mildly." Grodin continued to try to choke down his laughter, but it soon stopped as he gently lifted Bec off of Mckay. "Bec doesn't look good; I don't think she has much time."

Avril stopped yelling and quickly came over. Bec did look bad, and so did Mckay for that matter. She suspected that everyone here needed some level of medical help after morning, even if it was with Heightmeyer. Her point was proven when Raginmar starting to wretch in the corner.

"I think the best bet would be stick with the vent plan." Eaton spoke up, staring at his shoes. "It looks like at least three of us physically will not be able to make the trip and an able person will have to stay to be the bottom rung of the human ladder. So that means that we will have five people to try to find people under an open vent."

It was relatively easy to pick who would do what in the group. The Perez and Raginmar were going to pair up because they trusted each other. Avril and Kavanagh were paired because no one trusted Kavanagh with the injured, and Avril had clearly scared him spit-less. Grodin would go on his own through the ducts with the penlight, leaving Eaton to keep an eye on Bec and try to wake up Mckay and Zelenka. It didn't take long for the men to boost Avril into the vent, who the pulled Kavanagh up next to her. Soon the three groups were in the duct and crawling away from the smoke filled conference room.

Eaton sat down on his heels next to his injured colleagues. "I don't know if you guys can hear me, but it is starting to get a little claustrophobic in here so I really need to talk, even if the conversation is really one sided. So what should I talk about? Have you guys ever wondered about space? Well I mean other then Mckay. I am sure that he knows something about it being an astrophysicist and all. Well I am going to talk about spaces." Eaton took a deep breath and started. "Did you know that before we left NASA was planning a mission to Europa. You know the ice Galileo Moon of Jupiter. We were working on the probe designs while in Antarctica and they were really cool. What else…"

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"Doctor Weir! Doctor Weir! We are losing them." The tech's voices closed to a whisper as little dots continued to disappear. Finally it stopped blinking out leaving four lonely dots.

"Major Sheppard, is there any way that you can get to the conference room any faster?"

"_We are going full tilt here. I doubt we can clear the debris any faster. Is their something we should know?"_

"I am afraid that we weren't fast enough. Beckett will need some body bags." Weir's voice almost choked.

"_How many did we lose? Do we have any idea who we still have?"_

"There are only four left. There is no way to figure out who is who, but I want to those four home." Off the radio Sheppard turned to the rescue team and explained why that had to try to work faster.

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_**Author's note:** I am very sorry for not posting early. I had a wee run in with my food allergy. That type of thing ends up ruining anyone's weekend. If you doubt me just ask Mckay after someone has handed him a lemon._


	6. Chapter 6

The vent was dark, dirty and incredibly cramped. Avril flicked her hair out of her eyes for the umpteenth time, trying to ignore Kavanagh as he talked constantly. For the first fifteen minutes it was bearable. He was relatively quite, but it seemed as soon as he realized that Avril could not turn around in the tight vents and smack him, he turned into an absolute chatter box.

"I now know why the U.S. Government sends many military personal to Antarctica! Now if you would please, SHUT UP!" Slightly stunned silence followed. "Thank you?"

Several minutes later Kavanagh cleared his throat and spoke up again. "Dr. Blancheflour?"

"What do you want?"

"Do you act this way to the rest of the scientists in your department or do you just hate me?" Kavanagh was not earning brownie points right now.

"To tell you honestly, I just hate you."

"Oh." Finally the conversation lapsed into silence again and Avril was left to stew over the fact that she disliked getting dirty, didn't enjoy dark enclosed spaces, and really hated the person who paired her with Kavanagh.

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"So what was your specialty anyway?" Dr. Carl Raginmar asked as he slid down another set of ducts.

"I am an Egyptologist. Um, are we going in circles?" Dr. Perez asked again.

"We are not going in circles. So, where did you do your doctoral work at?"

"University of Liverpool…Are you sure we are not going in circles!?!"

There was a muffled thud. "Yep."

"How could you possibly know if we are going in circles or not? All of duct panels feel the same and it is really dark in here."

"We just hit a dead end."

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"…Well one of the reasons that scientists are really excited about this mission to Europa is the possibility that there could be a liquid ocean of water or ethanol underneath the ice shell caused by the gravitational pull of Jupiter and the other Galileo moons. Some scientists are grumpy about the mission, though, because it pushed back a mission to Pluto when Pluto was the closest to the sun that it would be for…"

"Eaton would you please be quite." Mckay whimpered. "Head really hurts."

"I thought it was kind of interesting." Zelenka commented with out bothering to open his eyes.

"You guys are awake." Eaton suddenly perked up.

"Head hurt." Mckay wined.

"But you awake and I am not alone anymore. What should we talk about now?" Eaton was happily preparing to launch into another speech about the merits of exploring space. While Mckay just pressed his hands to his aching head and wished he could just go to sleep.

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Grodin was now wishing that he had been partnered with someone as he squeezed through the forking duct. It was starting to get eerily quiet. He never realizes how noisy it was on Atlantis. No matter what time of day or night there was always someone working on something or Mckay yelling at someone. In a way Atlantis had not only become a home, it had taken on a life of itself.

The penlights bulb sputtered and blinked out. With great relief Grodin saw a sliver of light a head of him and started hearing the rumble of voices. He crawled faster and started yelling for help. Once he got to the vent he could see the Major Sheppard, Dr. Beckett and a host of other personal working on clearing debris.

"MAJOR SHEPPARD!" Grodin yelled at the top of his lungs. Sheppard looked around confused.

"Did anyone else hear Dr. Grodin?" But before anyone could reply Grodin took aim and chucked the penlight at Sheppard head. If that doesn't work, he thought, I throw my sock at him.

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"Did anyone else hear Dr. Grodin?" Sheppard was staring to think maybe he didn't get enough sleep last night and he wasn't thinking straight when he felt a sharp rap on the back of his head. While he pressed his hand against the throbbing pain, he looked up and spotted a face looking through the vent. "Dr. Grodin is that you?"

"Yes it is me and would you mind getting me out of this duct it is rather unconformable."

"We'll get you out as fast as we can." Sheppard glanced over his shoulder and saw his men creating a makeshift ladder. Then a sobering thought hit his mind. "Dr. Grodin, report on the rest of the team."

"Who did we lose?" Beckett added mournfully.

"No one last time I checked, but there are four people left in the room, three of which are in pretty bad shape. It is a real possibility that we will lose them if we don't work fast."

At that point Beckett closed his eyes in relief. They were alive, and now that they had a way to access the wounded, he had the ability to try to keep it that way. Beside him, Sheppard activated his radio.

"Elizabeth, I have some really good news."

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**_Authors note_**-_Thank you for all your input. I hope you enjoy this chapter, as you can tell things are looking up...for now._


	7. Chapter 7

"_Elizabeth, I have some really good news. It turns out someone majorly messed up with the censors." _

"John, what are you telling me?" She looked over at the again at the computer screen there were only four glowing dots in the room. "We are still only showing four life signs in the room."

"_Exactly my point 'in the room' we are currently pulling Dr. Grodin out of the air vent system in the hallway and he reports that they had to leave four people in the room because of injuries. The rest of the scientists took their rescue into their own hands." _

"That is good that we have at least one scientist out. Do you have any plan to get the rest to safety?" Elizabeth turned to the tech working on the censor computer. "Is there away to expand the censors to include more of the area?"

"I don't know ma'am. I took us over an hour and a half try to get the life side detectors working in the room, but the surrounding area is more severely damaged. You said that Dr. Grodin is out. It would really help to have someone who actually knows what they are doing. The trial and error thing is really slow."

"I will see what I can do, but Dr. Beckett has the final say on whether Dr. Grodin is fit for duty."

"_Elizabeth, we have got a plan. The HOG Team has suggested using cave rescuing techniques to bring everyone out of the via the duct systems."_

"We are running out of options. If they think they could possibly get these people out faster then moving the debris let them try it. Dr. Beckett I need you to check over the Dr. Grodin. If he is fit for duty we could really use his expertise up here repairing the censors."

"_I will be right up." _Grodin's voice cracked over the radio.

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"No you won't son." Dr. Beckett replied staunchly. "I want you to report to the infirmly immediately. Dr. Biro is going to be waiting for you there."

"But…" Dr. Grodin stammered a bit.

"I know that you want to help, son. But currently we need to know what condition the people we are going to be pulling out. While you get examined you are going to tell my staff what they can expect to find."

"Wait, where are you going?"

"Um, I am going in, lad." A wirily geologist came up and handed him a harness. "You described fairly significant injuries. Someone will have to stabilize them for transport."

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Forty-five minutes later the HOG team had set up a remote command center in a room with a view of the vent. Sheppard was looking at a group of scientists he had never seen before type quickly on their computers. A dark haired woman handed him a head set.

"My name is Celia Krauss, this is Yoko Tsukishiro." A slight, tall Asian woman glanced up from her computer. "We will be running the rescue control center. We will be using the Ping systems to keep track of our personal until the life signs censor up."

"The _what_ system?" Sheppard looked at the diagrams on the computer with the rough overlay of the duct system.

"The Ping system. Without GPS some of our diving equipment has been having problems with navigation. We created a system that allows us to make out a person's location using a beacon transmitting a signal at a set frequency it is then picked up by three probes, which are currently set up."

"So it gives you the location of the person?"

"Not only that, if the Oreo is properly attached," Celia tossed him a small round piece of metal, then leans back over her computer, "it will allow you to monitor things like heart rate, blood pressure, and approximant blood oxygen and nitrogen level. But we can only really use Oreos when we are diving so we are currently using avalanche beacons."

"We have avalanche beacons?"

"Yes." Celia switched on her radio. "Larry we are calibrated we are waiting for you to activate the last probe." A light flashed onto the computer screen. "Good, I have got you. Starting final calibration…" Celia typed in a series of commands, "now." She switched off the radio. "Tim, missions go in ten minutes."

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Beckett was starting to wonder what he had gotten himself.

"Feeling okay, Doc." Eric Cooper, one of the resident Navy SEALS pulled him out of his day dreams.

"Fine, lad."

"Good. Now that you're all geared up it's time to get you introduced to the team." Eric quickly guided Beckett into the control center. "This is going to be the control center. We are going to be working between three radio frequencies. On channel number six will be Dr. Celia Krauss. She will be taking care of the technical aspect of the mission including keeping track of everyone's location. On number seven will be Major Sheppard. He will be our communication to people outside our team. Last but not least, on channel eight is Dr. Yoko Tsukishiro." Yoko's head bounced up and she waved before going back to work. "She will be working with on the medical evacuation. She can connect you with anyone on the medical staff and is fairly fluent in that strange medical techno garble. I will hand you off to the commander of this mission. He is all your's Tim."

"Dr. Beckett we have just got the go a head so as we get the ropes put up I am going to introduce you to the team. First person you should meet is Jason Wage, he will be your medical assistant. He has had back country first aid training and fairly well house trained." The wiry geologist rolled his eyes at his commander.

"Don't listen to everything he says, Doc."

"Uh, well back to the team. The other geologist is Albert Johnston. He will be performing search and rescue for the two other groups of scientists. If someone in those groups needs medical attention then he will bring the back to you for treatment. Lastly you have me and Eric. Being the buff Ex-SEALS that we are we will be the pack horses to transport the injured out. Have any questions?" Before Beckett could really speak up again Tim started talking again. "Good, everyone get on your rope we will be ascending in the following order. Eric take point followed by Albert, Beckett, and Wage. We will then pass up the two backboards and I will take the six. Let's get started people. Oh, and doctor before I forget, clip this onto your shirt zipper."

Beckett looked a little confused at the strange looking fish charm in his hand. "What is it?"

"Simply put, it is the HOG team's version of a dog tag. Welcome to the crew."

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_**Author's Note-**Now searching for a beta reader. _


	8. Chapter 8

While Eaton was talking, Mckay thought that it couldn't get any worst but now that the room was eerily quiet he was almost ready to admit he was wrong. While the astronomer lay curled up a few feet away from them the atmosphere in the room became almost suffocating. Between the quiet and the smoke, Mckay thought he would go insane.

"Mckay, you're starting to hyperventilate again." Zelenka commented through his own wheezing breathes.

"I have the right to hyperventilate. It is part of panicking efficiently." Mckay was about to talk more but started into a fit of coughing, which caused him to grip his ribs and blink back tears.

"That is the reason why you shouldn't hyperventilate. It looks like you have bruised your ribs."

Mckay couldn't resist attempting a barb. "I didn't bruised by ribs. I had my ribs shattered by a fairly heavy female scientist falling on top of me."

"I don't think Bec would take that kindly to that comment. You might want to tell her that when she is awake." Zelenka shot back, but his worry for his companions showed in his voice. It had been close to an hour and a half since the other scientists had left. In that time Eaton had fallen asleep after talking non-stop to keep himself from panicking, Bec had bleed through Eaton's shirt and was working on soaking the bindings they had cut out of Zelenka's shirt, and he could tell that Mckay's ribs were really hurting him. The fact was there was nothing that they could do; they had to wait to be rescue.

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"Do you lad's do this often?" Dr. Beckett was surprised how fast the HOG Team members negotiated the tight space and corners.

"You'd be surprised, Doc." Jason Wage spoke up. "Back in Antarctica do you ever remember strange thumping noises coming from the ceiling?"

"Yes lad, I actually remember a few occasions when there was strange noises coming from the ceiling while I was in my lab." Beckett was mildly confused now.

"That was us." Tim commented from the back.

"What?"

"That was in the vents. I know it is a bit weird but there wasn't a whole lot places to train outside in Antarctica so we improvised. Hiking practice we ran through the corridors and stairs of the base, for camping we set up our tents in the cafeteria and cooked our food on a littler burner, and for caving practice we climbed through the duct systems." He didn't mention that they also spent more time outside then any other scientist in McMurdo on the base.

"You lads are not normal are ya." Beckett just shook his head and kept crawling.

"Nope." Albert Johnson spoke up from in front of him. "We joke that that is the reason we were assigned the nightshift. We were just too weird to fit in with the other scientists."

"So you further distinguish yourselves by wearing these 'HOG Team' dog tags?"

"Yep." It was Eric's turn to speak. "They were actually Bec's idea, so she could explain things better to you. But basically each person on the team has a different animal on their zippers. It is a way to identify who equipment belongs to as well as would allow us to quickly identify someone who may be critically injured."

"And you expect someone to be injured enough to make feature identification nearly impossible. Aren't you lads jumping the gun a bit?" Beckett's question was met by a little laughter, before Tim spoke up.

"Well you see Doc, we are not you average scientists. Eric and I have military training so we tend to do stupid military things, like play with really big guns. Wage love caving and Albert is a vulcanologist, which is just asking for trouble. Everyone else on the team is dive trained, rock climbs, hang glides, and knows how to set off mining charges. Eventually, no matter how safe we try to be eventually someone is going to get hurt. We have decided to be ready for that moment; there is nothing reckless about it."

"See your point lad."

"And I see our destination." Eric Cooper piped in.

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Mckay was starting to doze off when he started hearing voices. Oh, great now I am hallucinating, he thought through his pain fogged mind. He was happily proven wrong when Eric's head popped out of the open vent.

"Hello, Dr. Mckay. Good to see you awake." Eric shouted into the vent. "Belay."

"Ready on belay," echoed several voices.

"Belaying now." Eric quickly descended to the floor followed by Albert, Beckett and Wage leaving Tim Hendricks to attach a small pulley system to help them raise the backboards into the vent. Beckett immediately started tending to his patients while Wage unpacked first aid kit.

"Um," Beckett tried to remember the name. "Albert, I need you to talk to Mckay. He seems to be on the verge of a panic attack. Also gently wake up him," Beckett pointed at Eaton. "He doesn't appear to be injured and he can help out with Dr. Zelenka."

"You might want to let him sleep for a while. Eaton is an astronomer and is a bit claustrophobic. Doubt you will get him through the ducts if he is not at peak condition." Zelenka commented without bothering to open his eyes.

"Good to hear you're awake, lad. How are you feeling?"

"As well as you would expect. I hope you brought some Tylenol in that bag of yours."

"Do I ever forget it, son?" Beckett motioned Wage forward. "Give Zelenka and Mckay some Tylenol and put cervical collars on both just in case."

"What!?! We really don't need that." Mckay retorted.

"That is why I said 'just in case.'" Beckett turned his attention on his most critical patient. "Wage I need you to hand me the pressure bandages and the IV equipment, Stat." Beckett activated his radio. "Yoko, are you there lass. I need you to look up Bec's file and tell what blood type she is and if she has any allergies any medications."

Yoko promptly replied. "She is blood type O-neg, no know allergies to medications but is hyper-allergic to poison ivy, allergic to chocolate and chlorine, and mildly allergic to peppers."

"I could have told you that." Wage commented as he handed him the bandages and IV equipment. "There were two types of IV fluid, D-50 and Sweet Ringers. I wasn't sure which one you wanted so I brought both."

"The D-50 is for Rodney. I need a bag Sweet Ringer. She is too shocky." Beckett was starting to get flustered that told the room enough. "Does anyone have a knife handy?" Tim quickly pulled out his dive knife and handed it down the Beckett who quickly started slicing through Bec's pant leg.

"Is she going to be alright?" Mckay asked the question that everyone was thinking.

"I do not bloody know!" Everyone translated that to 'things are really bad, leave the frustrated doctor alone.' Dr. Beckett activated radio, again. "Yoko, listen to me lass. I need you to get a full medical team to the vent. They need to be ready to prep a patient of surgery. She is going into hypovolaemic shock with some possible hypovolemic factors and have extreme tissue damage to their right arm. I am not going to remove the wrappings because of the risk of a bleed out but it looks like all of the finger extenders tendons have been severed. The patient has also suffered a concussion, so anesthesia cannot be used. We will try to get her to you within twenty minutes."

Without bothering to shut of the radio he almost shouted Wage to help him to Bec to the backboard. It wasn't until Bec was lifted gently lifted to the ceiling by the two SEALS and the scratching sound of them sliding the backboard down the vent disappeared, that Beckett sat down between Mckay and Zelenka.

"She is in really bad shape, isn't she." Wage stated.

"What makes you say that, lad?" Beckett asked, dragging his thoughts together and starting to examine Zelenka's leg.

"I have never seen a doctor panic like that before."

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_**Author's Note**-Hope you enjoy the chapter and happy Halloween. _


	9. Chapter 9

Albert Johnston had been shocked seeing Bec in such bad shape, but wasn't that surprised. After all, most of the scientists on Atlantis had read files on past missions of the SGC. Their pages read like a Dirk Pitt Adventures. The military commanding type usually getting severely hurt, the civilian scientist types getting repeatedly thrown in harms way, and certain people keep on being declare dead and show up again in a few weeks. No wonder they keep this type of thing quiet from the American public. I people knew how often some people have died, for example Dr. Jackson, it would freak them out. Albert mind was brought back to the present when he started hearing voices, which meant the trail of blood was leading him to some of their lost scientists.

"Command, I believe I am approaching the location of some of our wayward sheep."

"_That is great, can you identify which group it is." Sheppard's voice cracked over radio._

"Well seeing I have been following a trail of blood, and someone is yelling in a language that sounds a whole lot like French I am betting I have found Kavanagh and Avril."

"_And not a moment to late. From what Grodin told us, I think you better go and save them from each other."_

"Rodger, that sir." Albert switched off his head lamp and started crawling a little bit faster in the direction of the people talking.

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"It looks like you will evacuate next, Zelenka." Dr. Wage was knelling next to him checking his vitals for what seemed the umpteenth time. "I have to admit I do not envy you. I hate being on a backboard. You can't move, and the carriers tend to turn you all sorts of odd directions. When we were training in Canyonland's National Park we ran this training simulation and…"

"Jason Wage, lad, aren't ya supposed to be comforting the patient instead of telling him horror stories about how much you dislike backboards." Beckett looked annoyed at Wage while he concentrated on placing the IV of Sweet Ringers (Mckay's blood sugar wasn't low enough to require the use of the D-50) in the inside of Mckay's elbow. "Would you sit still, Rodney? With as many IVs that I have to give you, you'd think that you would have already blown a vein." Beckett gave an exasperated sigh and continued to try to hold Mckay's arm still. Mckay tried to jerk it out of Beckett's grasp.

"Blown vein? That sounds dangerous." Mckay continued to squirm.

"Aye lad, and I will give you more to worry about if you don't stop twitching." It was clear by now that Beckett was not going to be able to put in the IV until the cavalry arrived. So he gave up and helped Wage strap Zelenka onto the backboard. "Oh, Rodney just so you know you will be crawling out on your own power."

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For Eric and Tim patient drop off had been chaotic. As soon as they exited the vent there was a full medical team who snatched Bec away started her on oxygen, hooked her up heart monitor, and attached a rapid infuser to the IV already stuck into the Femoral Vein in her leg. Access to the vent was blocked for a few minuets so they checked into command center.

"Major Sheppard, Yoko, Celia. Two out seven to go. We are planning to bring out Mckay, Zelenka and Eaton in the next group." Tim said while leaning heavily on the wall.

"It looks like Albert has found Avril and Kavanagh." Celia looked up from her computer. "That means that we are only really missing two scientists."

"That's good. Once we get the injured out Eric and I will go back in to look for them."

"Speaking of getting back in," Eric commented casually while looking out the doorway. "I believe our way is clear. Let's go rescue Wage and Beckett from the complaining of Dr. Mckay.

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"Hi," the new voice is in the conversation caused both Avril and Kavanagh to jump. Avril turned to see Albert Johnston behind them. As he reached up and flicked on his headlamp, Avril glared at him.

"What took you so long?" Kavanagh asked before Avril had a chance to start yelling again. "I have been crawling through ducts with a mad woman! She broke my nose."

"What do you mean, you stupid oaf? If one of us is mad it is clearly you. You were the one who cause this whole problem and…" At that time Albert decided to put his foot down.

"Would you two stop arguing? The sooner we start moving the sooner we get out of the vent. I say we start moving, because I still have two scientists to find."

"If we are missing two scientists logical deduction means that Grodin and the penlight found the right exit."

"That is not all. Apparently he got Major Sheppard's attention by throwing the penlight and hitting him in the head." Kavanagh slightly chuckled while Avril just rolled her eyes as the three scientists crawled backwards though the duct.

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"Hello again," Eric's head popped out of the vent again. "We come bearing gifts."

"Yep, we brought lunch." Tim commented as he slid down the rope. "It turns out that you guys have captured the hearts and minds of Atlantis, a lot of the personal who are not helping out with the rescue have gathered in cafeteria. When they goofed up with the censors and were convinced that over half of you guys were dead, they did a whole prayer circle thing. When they found out that everyone was alive, they practically threw a party and when the kitchen staff heard that we were going in, they whipped up your favorites." They pulled out a few small containers from Tim's backpack, while Wage woke up Eaton.

"Wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty." Wage gently shook Eaton's shoulder and backed away quickly when he woke with a start. "Whoa, relax, everything is okay, buddy. We are here to get you out."

Eaton started to calm down. "How long was I out?"

"No clue. Why don't you ask Dr. Mckay? It won't shock me if he was keeping track. I would also get a bite to eat; we are going to e-vac you in ten minutes."

Still groggy Eaton accepted the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, while Mckay wondering whether he should eat the cup of blue Jell-O or the chocolate bar first. Beckett was helping Zelenka down the container of apple juice and Tim and Eric were double checking the ropes they would use to hoist everyone to the vent.

"Ten minutes are up, everyone ready?" Tim said brightly, knowing that most of the people he was about to evacuate were staring apprehensively at the vent.

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_**Author's note**-I thought you might be interested in some information on the medical terminology I have been using. There are several types of IV fluid the most commonly used IV fluid is just sterile saline. It is used to push medications through the body, but too much will cause the lungs to fill with saline killing the patient. If you have to put large quantities of fluid into a person it is better to use DW5 (5 Dextrose in water), 2/3D (3.3 Dextrose/0.3 saline), or Lactated Ringer (a fluid that imitates blood chemistry). Specialty fluids include D50 (50 Dextrose in water) used to pull someone out of a hypoglycemia reaction, Acetated Ringers (a version of Ringers) used during surgery and Sweet Ringers (a version of Ringers that contains Dextrose) which is used when someone need to be evacuated. I hope this will help you better enjoy the story._


	10. Chapter 10

The people in the control room cheered when Dr. Peter Grodin walked of the transporter, but quickly got back to work under his careful instruction. As the room quieted and all the techs got back to work, Dr. Weir took the opportunity to talk to her top computer scientist.

"It is good to have you back."

"It is good to be back, and hopefully we have enough time to get everyone out in time." Weir could feel that Grodin was tense and hurting, but she wasn't sure how much was physical injury and how much was emotional frustration about no being able to help his friends.

"We have already found all but two of the scientist. We will get everyone out in time. In a few days everything will be back to normal." Dr. Weir said as Grodin sat himself in front of his computer. She said it to convince herself as much as anyone.

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Bec had been rushed to the infirmary where surgeons Caroline Marks and Andrew Ludwig were waiting to receive her. Dr. Biro had temporarily released Dr. Grodin to help with the search as she helped warm up the CT scanner. After the placement of a subclavicle IV they started her on whole blood, as well as gave her a contrast injection. Then they whisked her into the CT scanner to check for any interbrain hemorrhaging, and into surgery to try to stop the arterial bleeding from her arm.

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The three members of the HOG team were surprised how quickly they had been able to get Zelenka into the vent. He was surprisingly light. The weight was balanced out as they trying to get Mckay up into the vent. Not only was he much heavier than Zelenka and Bec, Eric almost dared to say combined, but he was complaining that they were trying to further damage his ribs. They decided to bring Zelenka out and then come back to pick up Mckay after poor Dr. Beckett taped up his ribs.

By the time Tim and Eric had dropped off a wide eyed Zelenka to the waiting arms of the medics and then returned, Beckett had somehow gotten the shirt off of Mckay and Eaton and Wage had helped him bind the ribs with Ace Bandages. Now Mckay had no excuse, he was going into the vent. It took over twenty minutes to Mckay into the vent with Tim and Eric pulling the ropes on the pulley from above and Beckett trying to comfort him from bellow. Beckett's gear went up next followed by Beckett, Eaton, and Wage.

"I know everyone is tired. Just hang on for a little bit longer. We will get you guys out in no time." Eric tried to laugh but he was fatigued too.

The crawled along in relative silence. The only people that talked were the curses from Mckay every other minute when he bumped his ribs and Eaton trying to talk himself out of his claustrophobia. He jumped for subject to subject softly muttering about space and the different units that aliens used to explain the area between stars. They were approaching the light of the exit vent, when Wage could tell something was wrong. Eaton's rambling had stopped and all he could hear was heavy breathing in front of him. Then Eaton just stopped for no apparent reason and the wheezing increased.

"Hey, Eaton, you doing okay?" Wage asked. The reply he got was barely a whisper.

"Out, need to get out."

"Um, Doc. I think we have another problem."

"Your right lad, he is starting into a panic attack." Beckett listened to the Eaton's breathing. "Eaton, son, I need you to listen me. I need you to take deep slow breaths. Good. Now in and out, in and out." This wasn't working. "Tim is there any way we can go any faster?"

"Not really. But I think it will be a lot quicker to get Mckay down then it was to get him up."

"You need to hurry up lad. Good, now soon keep breathing." Beckett was extremely frustrated that he could barely see his patient over his shoulder and the duct was too small to turn around. But in the quiet of the vent he could feel Eaton quiver. The poor boy must be terrified. Now with hope in sight he was showing signs of giving into his fears. If they couldn't get him moving soon, they might be dealing with something worst then a panic attack.

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Grodin coughed harshly, but ignored it and continued to work through the computer codes trying to find a way to bypass the damage to the censors. His fingers almost danced across the computer keys. Dr. Weir watched with fascination. She sometimes found the scientist odd, but right now when they were in there element it almost seemed like a dance. Just likely when she was trying to negotiate a complex treaty, they knew their opponents' language and their weakness's and they were not leaving the table until they got what they wanted.

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_**Author's Note**-First things first, never tape someone's ribs. It will not cause any immediate damage but limits breathing. This can cause other problems especially if you live at high altitude, your patient is anemic or has low blood sugar. The exception to this rule is when it is an extremely useful tool to get Mckay to stop complaining temporarily. It limits movement of the rib cage thus limiting pain. This only works if he has been in pain long enough that he is shocked into silence. I hope you are never left in a room with and injured Rodney to need this advice. _


	11. Chapter 11

"Mckay, move your sorry butt now!" Tim was trying to use intimidation to get Mckay to move fast, and as far as they could tell it was working. He allowed Eric to clip him to the rope and lower him down to the ground level where a gurney was waiting for him. Beckett was lower to down while Mckay was being wheeled away. Before Rodney's complaining had faded way, everyone started working on the problem of getting the panicked Eaton out of the vent.

"What if we blindfold him?" Wage suggested "It works when you are trying to get a horse out of a burning building. Why won't it work as for a claustrophobic astronomer?"

"I heard that." Eaton wheezed, but didn't move.

"Well it is either that or you start moving."

Eaton figured out a third option. He hyperventilated to the point where he passed out.

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"You touched me again." Avril said sharply.

"No I didn't." Kavanagh shot back.

"Would you two stop it?" Albert Johnston was the next to speak up trying to prevent the argument from escalating, again."

"How much farther do we have to go?" Avril asked.

"I have no clue." Albert commented.

"Why don't you ask the person who is on the radio?" Kavanagh suggested annoyed.

"I am not going to tie up the radio frequency and bother Celia again asking about our location. We will get out when we get out." Wage replied. From the noise they made Wage knew that currently the only person Kavanagh and Avril hated more then each other was him. But by then he really didn't care. In fact he was almost to the point of hating them back.

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Part way through surgery, Bec blood oxygen levels continued to drop and it was clear she was going into respiration failure. They switched her from the non-rebreather mask to a ventilator. All they could do now was continue to pump her full of blood products and volume expanders, patch up the holes, and pray.

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"Sh, I think I hear something." Dr. Raginmar stopped and listened. There was someone in the vents.

"Carl, are you sure that it is something is there or it the same as the whole we are not going in circles thing?"

"Perez, be quiet." Raginmar replied sternly. "There is someone out there. ANYBODY OUT THERE!?!"

"Carl, are you out of your mind?" Perez was starting to panic. But after a few seconds they heard voices in reply.

"HELLO, MAY I GO OUT ON A LIMB AND SAY YOU ARE THE MISSING PAIR OF SCIENTIST. MAY I ALSO ASSUME THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET OUT NOW?"

Perez and Raginmar looked at each other and replied. "YES!"

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Grodin was still typing on the computer, when Sheppard radioed Weir with the announcement.

"_We just got Mckay and Eaton out, plus one of the geologists found the last pair of scientists. They are currently on the last leg of the journey coming out."_

"And now you work." Grodin glared at the computer, Weir looked at him a little funny. "The censors are working."

"_Oh, and if Grodin is up there tell him that Carson wants him to report to the infirmary."_

With a soft smile Grodin looked at Weir. "Today is not my day." He laughed, as he closed the computer and got up, but before he left he had on last request. "Make sure my people get some sleep." Weir quietly nodded.

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"Caroline, I think she is come to."

At that moment Bec's eyes opened wide with pain and panic. In one fluid motion she kicked out at the people holding her down snapping through a few her restraints. Flailing her injured arm she smashed it into the Dr. Andrew Ludwig face bruising his lip and causing a trickle of blood to drizzle down his chin. Dr. Caroline Marks immediately pinned down Bec's head and shoulders so she didn't dislodge the subclavian IV port.

"Sh, it is okay. It is okay." Bec made a choking sound. "It is okay we had to put in a trach tube, to help you breath. You need to relax and stop fighting it, okay?"

As things calm down and Bec body stilled but her eyes still looked up to her in pain. Dr. Ludwig glanced over Caroline as he lifted his hand from the injured arm. She has torn out at least a half hour worth of stitches and a small artery had started spurting blood again. He got fresh gloves and gently started the first stitch. Bec's back arched and her eyes were pain filled but keep her injured arm ridged. Caroline held Bec down firmly while gently holding her uninjured hand. Watching the reaction, it dawned on Caroline what was wrong.

"Andrew, stop stitching. I think that the local anaesthetic wore off." Still holding Bec's hand and she stroked her hair. "It is okay. Everything will be okay. We are going to give you something for the pain. You can go back to sleep." By the time were ready to give the shot of anaesthetic, Bec hand had relaxed. She had given into the darkness.

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"Mckay, stop moving." Carson was glaring at Mckay as he was squirming enough to make the medical staff worry about him dislodging the IV in the arm.

"But it really hurts."

"I know it hurt's, lad. You have eight cracked ribs. If you want to save yourself pain, I would lay back and stop moving."

"Can't give me anything?" Mckay wined.

"You suffered a concussion and you have already maxed out your Tylenol allotment. Now just lay back, try to sleep and if you are really good I will see if one of the nurse can find you a bowl of Jell-o."

"Blue."

"Yes, Rodney I will see if a nurse can find you a bowl of _blue_ Jell-o for you." Beckett was glad that he could escape to check on how his other patients were settling in. "How are you doing Zelenka?"

"Okay," Radek looked up Carson. "Everything hurts."

"You know I can't give ya, anything you had a concussion, son."

"I know that, take two Tylenol and call you in the morning, I guess." Zelenka chuckled a bit.

"That is the spirit, lad; call me if you need anything." Carson was about to his attention to Eaton, who was now happily sleeping, when the next group of scientists came in. Perez was confused, Raginmar looked lost, Avril was flustered, and Kavanagh looked extremely flustered as he held a white cloth to his nose, blood starting to soak through his fingers. "Kavanagh, what happened to you?" Avril, Kavanagh, and Johnston, who was following them, opened there mouths and Dr. Beckett regretted asking.

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Five hours after Dr. Rebecca Thomason was rolled into infirmary, Dr. Andrew Ludwig came out to report on the surgery. He looked like a mess. Blood stains down his surgical gown and a purple bruise stained his puffy bottom lip. He also looked very tired as he scrubbed his hand through his scruffy hair.

"She made it through. We had to put her on the ventilator and we are still pumping blood into her, but she is currently post op."

"When can we see her?" Timothy Hendricks asked, quietly.

"Tomorrow afternoon at best, her bodies took big shock and she is still not out of the woods yet. If you will give us a chance to get her stable, promise you will have plenty of time to talk with her."

Tim and Eric were going to argue, but Dr. Beckett quickly came up after getting his patients settled. "Andrew, what happened to your face?"

"Dr. Thomason woke up during surgery. She panicked a little and broke the restraints, she did some damage before we got her calmed down." Dr. Ludwig touched his lip. "But she is fine now, Caroline is with her."

"Please can we see her, Dr. Beckett?" Tim asked. "Just for a minute, I won't get in the way. We just need to know that she is still here. Then we promise that we will leave. We will go get something to eat, report to the rest of the team and go to sleep. Just let us see her first."

Carson looked at the pleading ex-navy SEALS. "Alright lads, I will let one of you see her." Dr. Ludwig tried to argue. "Son, have you every tried to keep Major Sheppard out of the infirmary when one of the team is injured." Andrew shook his head no. "Well it is nearly impossible. The only way to get these people out of the infirmary and into their beds is to convince them everything will be okay. The only way to do that is to let them see there teammate alive with their own eyes."

_**Author's Note**-I hope you enjoyed the chapter. As you can tell this story is coming to a close and I need your help. How can I improve my writing for the next story, which characters do you want to see again, and what types of stories do you want. Any comments would be greatly appreciated._


	12. Chapter 12

"Hello, lov." Carson looked up from his computer at Elizabeth who was standing at the doorway of his office. "May I help you with something?" He got up with chair.

"I was just checking up on our people. How are they doing?" She leaned against the doorway even though Carson offered her his chair.

"Good actually, Drs. Grodin, Blancheflour, Kavanagh, Perez and Raginmar will be released tomorrow morning baring complications. I still would like them to be on light duty tomorrow, but then sore throats from the smoke they inhaled they should be fine."

"What about the others?"

"I will release Dr. Eaton this evening before his shift and he as spoken to Dr. Heightmeyer. He had a panic attack in the duct system. Small wonder, the lad is extremely claustrophobic. He held up extremely well, but I think he feels guilty about fainting."

"How are the other three?"

"Well, Mckay and Zelenka are going to be staying for at least 48 hours, most likely longer. Mckay has several cracked ribs, a concussion, and has some mild electrical burns. Zelenka on the other hand also had a concussion, but also has severe bruising of his legs. Apparently he was stuck in the middle of a table and floor sandwich. I hope both on them will have recovered enough to be released to quarters in a few days. By then the whole shock of the ordeal will have worn off and Mckay will start complaining about the fact I couldn't give him pain medication. Dr. Bec on the other had will hopefully only be in here for two to three weeks."

"That long? I knew the injury was extensive but it was to her arm."

"Even though the cut to her arm was severe cutting several major blood vessels and severing all the finger extender tendons in here right hand. It was the blood loss that caused her to suffer from hypovolaemic shock. As a result we are still monitoring her vital organs for shocked liver and kidney damage. Even if there are no major complications it is going to weeks before her blood chemistry returns to normal. We are also looking at the possibility of neurological damage. She has only woke up once since the evacuation. We will just have to wait and see."

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Dr. Caroline Marks also found Dr. Beckett in front of his computer but he was quietly sleeping on the keyboard. The screen saver slowly flashing pictures of far away Scotland. She saw his jacket on one of the neighboring chairs, picked it up and draped it over his shoulders. She turned to leave when Carson's tired voice stopped her.

"Is there something you needed to report?"

"I just wanted to tell you Dr. Thomason woke up again, and her test came up clear for kidney damage. She is going to be a sick puppy for a while but it looks like she dodged most the severe complications. Now all we need to do is let her rest and the body heal itself."

"You forgot the most difficult challenge of all, keeping Mckay quiet enough to allow her to sleep." Beckett chuckled.

"I believe that would be your job, he is your patient and I am only a lowly surgeon."

Both doctors laughed at that then Caroline went back her watch over her patient and Carson went back to sleep, but this time with a smile on his face.

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Bright and early the next morning there was already a group of scientist waiting for visiting hours. Dr. Beckett knew he was going to have to put some more restrictions on visits, but knew that people would totally ignore them. Proven by the fact Sheppard was already camped out in the chair between Mckay and Zelenka.

"Can you stick to the voodoo that actually works? Like pain medication, I know you said that I have a concussion but that doesn't mean that the best thing you can give me is Tylenol!"

"For goodness sakes Dr. Mckay, you have had enough concussions to know that we can only give you Tylenol for a minimum of 48 hours." A very tired looking Dr. Marks was trying to take a neurological reading while Carson was busy trying to convince Drs. Grodin, Avril, Kavanagh, Perez, and Raginmar to go to their quarters and relax.

"Do you doctor's actually take pleasure in torturing poor injured scientists, or was just something they drilled into you in medical school?"

"Rodney." Sheppard tone was telling Mckay that he was pushing it.

"It is okay Major. Actually Mckay we could make the argument that it is your life's goal to torture innocent medical techs. Now you can go to sleep again."

"But you just woke me up. How do you expect me to go to sleep if you keep waking me up ever hour or so?"

"I don't know? Why don't you tell me? Meanwhile if you don't stop complaining I might start believing your statement about doctors being vampires."

"You wouldn't."

"Oh, Mckay, I think we might need to do a full spectrum blood test on you. Shall I go get the needles?"

"She would." Sheppard added in smiling broadly. Mckay just crossed his arm sulkily across his chest and looked in the other direction.

"And you Major Sheppard. I would appreciate if you would not keep the patients up. The do need all the sleep they can get and yes I do recognize that cracked ribs are very painful." The last part seemed to be pointed directly at Rodney. "Zelenka, your next." Caroline pulled out his pin light and flashed into his eyes.

"Yes, yes, I know the drill." Radek winced against the light, but keep his eyes open. "My name is Dr. Radek Zelenka. I am from the Czech Republic. This is the infirmary at Atlantis; I have been here overnight being woke up every few hours to be checked at because of the concussion. Anything else you want me to say?"

"I think that pretty much covers it. Thank you Radek, we will only have to do this a few more times."

"You should get some sleep too." Zelenka said as he laid back and blinked his eyes.

"Dr. Z has a point. You look like you could use it." Sheppard looked at Dr. Marks.

With a laugh she replied. "I am on call in the ICU until Dr. Ludwig gets back. I will send Carson over when he finishes up with releasing the first group of scientists. I am sure he would like to chat." With that she turned and when back to the nurses' station. Sheppard stared after her listening to the click-click of her heals.

"Please, Sheppard." John turned to see Mckay looking at him. "I know what that look in your eye means. And if you wish to flirt with the dear Miss Dr. Vampire, please do it when I have already been released from the infirmary."

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Through out the day literally half of the science department attempted to get into the infirmary. But the nurses had gotten fairly good at running interference. The trick was keeping the traffic away from the sleeping astronomer in the corner, away from the ICU where Bec was resting during the weaning trials from the ventilator and keeping them from smuggling stuff to Mckay.

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Late in the afternoon of the following day, Mckay continued to complain nonstop. You could here his voice though out the entire infirmary. Bec pressed the nurse button and got quick responses. When the nurse asked what she needed. Bec pretended to be typing on a keyboard with one hand. The nurse said she wasn't up to it. Bec put her hands in the begging position and did the best puppy dog eyes she could with as much pain as she was in. The nurse came back with a laptop. First she type, 'Deliver this message to Mckay.' Showed it to the nurse and the type her really message. The nurse looked at it giggled promised it would go to the right person and Bec lay back and closed her eyes to try to sleep.

Mckay was still complaining in the main ward. The nurse walked over to him and shows the screen. Mckay was stunned into silence, Sheppard looked at it confused, and Dr. Zelenka almost busted out laughing. Scrawled across the screen in 48 pt. Times New Roman fount were the words 'For Pete's Sake Mckay, stop complaining. I don't get the good meds either. P.S. You weren't trapped under a table for over two hours."

Yep, things were getting back to normal.

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_**Author's note**-There was some confusion about why Dr. Bec woke up during surgery. The answer is simple because she had a concussion they could not use total anesthesia, sedative, or strong pain medication such as morphine. That means the only medications they could give her is Tylenol, which is a little hard to do if they are unconscious, or they can use local anesthesia. That only numbs the immediate area, so they are free to wake up and move. Today minor operations are done with local anesthesia, which means you are able to watch them work on you. It is actually really cool._


	13. Chapter 13

Dr. Weir looked at the people sitting at the table. It was almost frightening how similar it was that fateful day only a week ago. The only difference was the fact Tim Hendricks replaces Dr. Thomason, who was still stuck in the infirmary; and that Major Sheppard and Dr. Beckett were on either sided of her. Again Dr. Mckay rushed in late. This time caring his laptop tucked under his arm.

"Now that we are all here," she shot Mckay a very annoyed look. "I would like to make an announcement."

"Does this meeting have something to do with the fact the science departments are still not getting along?" Kavanagh grumbled, most of the scientists glared at him.

"We are here to figure out exactly what happen last week."

"Oh."

"The computer reading showed that there were two explosions. I believe Drs. Mckay and Grodin have been working on the causes for the explosions, and after I learn the true cause I believe there are several of us that need to apologies to each other, including me." Dr. Weir, looked down at the table, then scanned faces around the room. "I am partially responsible for the incident."

"It wasn't your fault." Avril stated looking at the table.

"No one blames you." Perez added.

"Would you let her finish?" Kavanagh commented with the something that sound eerily like glee. The scientists glared at him again.

"Thank you," Weir said curtly. "I was the one who put the ancient artifact ball in the room. I thought it would force everyone to talk. It turns out I put the smartest people on Atlantis, people required for our very survival in a room with an ancient grenade."

Before anyone could make another comment, Grodin spoke up. "It turns out there is no way she could have known. It requires close proximity to someone with the ATA, namely Dr. Mckay," everyone could tell Kavanagh and Sheppard both wanted to make a pointed comment but Grodin keep going, "to activate it. Then it takes someone without ATA gene to set it off, namely Kavanagh."

"So we know what went wrong in the room. Why did the hallway collapse?" Sheppard drawled.

Mckay jumped in quickly to answer. "Well it turns out that we accidentally set of an ancient bobby trap. The whole collapse hallway thing was there to squash wraith. It was really ingenious, if I may say so myself, the wiring was…"

"Rodney." Sheppard gave him his, we really don't care about the details look. "So, we know what happened. What if we figure out a plan to keep it from happening again." Most of the scientist took a liking to that suggest. They quickly started throwing out ideas.

"Better train second in command in case of emergencies." Was Grodin's suggestion.

"Basic medical training for all senior staff." Avril spoke next.

"Require staff to bring their computers to all meetings." Mckay added, but after the strange looks he said. "What, I got really board in there."

"How bout we require all personal to practice climbing through the vents." Tim offered. Eaton paled noticeably, everyone laugh and Weir though maybe the exercise worked after all.

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Epilogue

It was good to be free, true Bec knew she would be in a cast for at least another week and then physical therapy for the foreseeable future. But at least she was out of the infirmary. All she wanted to do was sit, eat normal food, and be able to talk to people who were not constantly worrying that she would suddenly break or something.

"Dr. Thomason." Bec looked over her shoulder to see Mckay coming towards her, and was mildly surprised when he took her food tray out of her hand, almost spilling her glass of juice in the process. "Your not suppose to carry things with that arm."

"There is nothing wrong with my left hand." She lifted her casted right arm to enforced the fact.

"I know, but, well Beckett said we almost lost you." Bec looked at Mckay shocked. "Let me put it this way you scared the science team thoroughly, and we are not going to let you do that again." Mckay set Bec's tray down on a table and left quickly.

"I am never going to live this down am I?" Bec laugh to herself as she dug shakily into the food. Things may be practically back to normal, but she could tell there was going to be some significant changes.

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_**Author's note**-I am sorry it took me so long to post the last chapter. It was almost like I was struggling to come to terms with the fact this story was coming to an end. That is why I started the next story before posting this chapter. Forgive me and enjoy the ending._


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